Tracked vehicles can have a prime mover for producing power and a transmission assembly for receiving said power and transferring it to a driveline or final drive assembly. The final drive assembly provides power to a sprocket or drive hub that drives the tracks along a surface. Instead of tracks, a vehicle may include wheels that receive the power from the final drive assembly and operably move the vehicle along the surface. In any case, the transmission output is connected to an input of the final drive assembly.
At some point during vehicle operation it may be desirable or necessary to maintain or service the transmission. To do so, it is often necessary to remove the transmission from the vehicle. Before the transmission can be removed from the vehicle, however, the transmission output must be disconnected from the final drive assembly. Alternatively, the final drive assembly can be completely removed, but this often is complex and requires labor-intensive work.
In some military vehicles, for example, an access port or opening can be provided for a technician to access the transmission output so that the transmission output can be disconnected from the final drive assembly. In these instances, however, the accessibility to this port or opening is often easy to get to and does not require any special tooling. In other instances, the design of the final drive assembly and sprocket for the track is such that there is limited or no access to the disconnect shaft. A separate port or access opening may be required on the interior of the vehicle or the final drive assembly may need to be disconnected from the vehicle before the transmission can be serviced. This again requires a substantial amount of time and effort and is less desirable in applications where a “quick disconnect” feature is necessary.
Thus, a need exists for providing a means for disconnecting a transmission output from a final drive assembly. Moreover, it is further desirable to design a disconnect mechanism for removably coupling a first component on one axis or centerline and a second component on a different axis or centerline.